If you want to consider doing a qualification yourself or even for help and advice with a course, you could do a lot worse than try here for support
http://www.certforums.co.uk/I went there when I was considering a course and they gave me enough confidence to study on my own. There is one problem. Without a deadline to work to, I got bogged down in lots of Windows installing/configuring/troubleshooting etc. crap and I am well behind on Comp TIA A+. I'll get there in the end (but I'll probably have to cover Vista.)
Even if you need an expensive system and/or software to study on your own, you were going to pay £5K to these muppets, why not spend it on your own hardware/software/textbooks etc. ?
_________________My lowest spec operational system- AT desktop case, 200W AT PSU, Jetway TX98B Socket 7, Intel Pentium 75Mhz, 2x16MB EDO RAM, 270MB Quantum Maverick HDD, ATI Rage II+ graphics, Soundblaster 16 CT2230, MS-DOS/Win 3.11
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